


Return to Lah'mu

by rebelrey



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Childhood Trauma, Cuddling, F/M, Fluff, Post-Rogue One, Rebelcaptain - Freeform, Rebelcaptainprompts, Sass, Sharing a Bed, almost a one-shot, anyways guess i should slap some real tags on this, holy crap this is my first fic i'm publishing, let's be honest rogue one is nothing without their sass, took me long enough haha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-13 13:31:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10514745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelrey/pseuds/rebelrey
Summary: The Battle of Scarif is over, the Death Star destroyed, and the Rogue One Team has nothing but time on their hands.  So when Jyn finds herself wanting to return to Lah'mu, it doesn't take much convincing to get the team to come along.  But what does this return really mean?  And what will the team find there?In response to rebelcaptainprompt's prompt #8:  All three words in one fic:  “agony”; “fingers”; and “shiver."





	1. Why Lah'mu?

* * *

 

“Lah’mu?  Why do you want to go _there_?  There’s nothing.” Bodhi’s words were not meant to wound Jyn, but they still sliced into her like he had been wielding a saber, rather than innocent ignorance and a habit of letting all his thoughts tumble out of his mouth.  

Jyn did her best to maintain a neutral face though, keeping her arms crossed and shrugging one shoulder.  “I have a hunch, we could find something useful there.”

Cassian looked at her from across the hold of the U-wing, but said nothing.  He knew why she wanted to go to Lah’mu.  Or at least why she had a _hunch_ about it.  Cassian had read the file Draven provided on Jyn Erso for Extraction Team Bravo.  Lah’mu was where she hid with her parents for four years, hid from Krennic and a galaxy torn apart by terror and bloodshed.  It was the last place she saw her mother or father.  It was the last time she had been a child, before Saw brought her to the Partisans, to the fight.  

Cassian knew all of this, but he didn’t say anything.  What right did he have to say something? What reason?

Through all the confusion of Scarif and the destruction of Alderaan, and the Battle of Yavin and the current scramble to relocate the bulk of the fleet from Yavin to force knows where, they had all forgotten, seemingly, what Jyn was going through.  They had all lost people yes, but how many of them had regained them, the hope of them anyways, only to lose them again in less than a week, and before their very eyes.

Cassian tried to imagine, what it might have been like, to know his father was still alive, albeit thinking he was an instrument of the Empire.  Then to find out that, the whole time, he was a rebel deep down, trying to fight the Empire from the inside.  To find out his location, and truly believe the Alliance was sending an extraction for him.  To get there, only to realize, too late, that the extraction was an assassination (by someone who was one of the first people you’d allowed yourself to trust in years).  

And despite all that, to still fight fate, to _run_ , _climb_ , _claw_ tooth and nail to see _him_ , the last person who you know really loved you, to try and save him.  And then steps away, to lose him again, this time forever.  The agony of holding him in your arms and realizing you have to _tell_ him, “it’s me, it’s me,” because how could he know it was you?  You were eight years old the last time he saw you, he won’t recognize you.  And in that moment, just like fifteen years ago, you’re ripped away from him, _again_.  

 

“Alright,” Bodhi said, not wanting to start an argument.  He definitely sensed, on some level, Jyn’s tension; probably saw it in the set of her shoulders and the clench of her jaw.  “Captain?” he asked.  

Cassian nodded without hesitation.  They would go.  And they didn’t need to worry about approval, not really.  They were heroes of the Rebellion and Leia had made it clear, whatever they wanted to do or wherever they wanted to go, as long as it was a part of the fight for the Rebellion they would have the support and the resources they needed.  No one was questioning Rogue One’s tactics again, not after Scarif.  

Bodhi rattled off some numbers, trying to approximate how long it would be until they could depart.  He would get the official stats from Kay (for fuel and supplies), but he guessed they would be ready to go in about twelve hours, a day at the most.  Jyn gave a curt nod, unfolded her arms and strode away stiffly, hands clenched at her sides.  Cassian mumbled a thank you to a confused Bodhi and quickly strode after her.  

“Jyn...Jyn!” Cassian called after her receding figure.   _Kriff_ , had she always been so fast?  He went after her, alternating between a quick walk and running, trying to keep up as she strode deeper into the ziggurat.  They had reached the living quarters by the time he caught up to her.

She continued to ignore him, despite the fact that she must feel his presence behind her, so he reached out and gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist, stopping her.  She whirled around to face him and Cassian saw her stony mask was slipping.  “Jyn…” he murmured, “I…” he hadn’t thought this far ahead.   

“Cassian, please let go of me,” Jyn said quietly.  The words sounded like a request, but Cassian knew Jyn well enough to realize they were a threat.   _Let me go or you’ll regret it_.  Usually Cassian obeyed.  He didn’t like to force anyone, much less Jyn, into an situation they didn’t want to be in.  But it had been weeks since Scarif and this wasn’t the first time Cassian had tried to convince Jyn to let him in.  She hadn’t allowed it.  Not after their narrow survival of Scarif, or after the subsequent loss and reacquisition of the plans they had been ready to die for.  Nor after the destruction of the Death Star, the planet killer that had been the final work of her father, the reason he had been absent for most of her life.  And Cassian had been resigned to letting it go, to let Jyn heal in her own time, on her own terms, but Cassian was beginning to question whether Jyn really needed to be on her own right now.  She had shut almost the whole team out, and anyone could see the isolation was beginning to eat away at her.  

Cassian began to loosen his grip but didn’t let go.  “Jyn…” he waited for her to look at him.  When she finally did, her eyes were tight and her lips were pressed into a firm line.  Even though the corridor was empty save for them, Cassian still whispered as he said, “please, I just want to help.”  After he said this he released her wrist, letting his hand slide down over her hand, but before letting go altogether Jyn’s own fingers curled, catching his hand for a moment.  Jyn gave the slightest nod.

 

“Come on,” he said, leading her further down the corridor to his own quarters.  His living space was just barely bigger than her’s, since he did still _technically_ outrank her, and he had some Corellian whiskey stashed away that needed drinking anyways.  

Jyn dropped onto the side of the bed, one of the only pieces of furniture in the room, and Cassian found the hidden bottle of whiskey and poured two generous mugs.  He considered leaving the bottle in its hiding spot, but decided against it and brought it over, handing a mug to Jyn before sitting down beside her.  

Not wanting to press anymore than he already had, he simply sat there, nursing the whiskey (Jyn had already downed hers in one go).  Cassian suddenly felt extremely tired, after the long day of helping to sort through intercepted transmissions, search for a viable location to establish the new Base One, answer question after question sent from various members of the Senate, it all suddenly came crashing down on him.  He let himself fall backwards onto the bed, legs hanging over the edge.  He could see Jyn out of the side of his periphery, and his eyes followed her as she leaned down, refilled her mug, and quickly drained it again.  Then she leaned back, propped up on her elbows, and let her head loll with her eyes towards the low, dark ceiling.  She sighed.  

“So, how much do you know about Lah’mu?” she asked.  Cassian was quiet for a moment before responding.  

“I know you lived there for a few years, from the ages of four to eight.  That your father and mother were trying to hide from the wars.  That the Empire eventually found where you were and came to get you all.  I know your father was taken and your mother…” he hesitated, but went on.  “Your mother was killed the extraction team, but they brought her body back to Coruscant for burial.”  Cassian glanced at Jyn, to see if she was reacting to any of the information.  He had no way of knowing what _she_ knew, what Saw had told her, what she had found out over the years.  She didn’t move.  

“I know the Empire never found you there, but that wasn’t for a lack of trying.  That presumably Saw Gerrera came and got you.”

Jyn sighed again, and let her arms buckle, so that she fell back onto the bed alongside Cassian.  She crossed her arms over her torso and kept her eyes trained on the ceiling.  From the side Cassian could see her eyes shining, glassy from unshed tears.  “So not much?” she asked.

“Enough to know it was your home, for a little while.”  Cassian said.  He fell silent again.   

Jyn was quiet long enough that Cassian thought she might have fallen asleep, but she spoke again.  

“I saw it,” she said.  Cassian turned his head, gave her a questioning look, but said nothing, waiting.

“I saw them shoot her...my mother.  She was trying to stop them, stop them from taking my father.  From taking me.  I wasn’t supposed to be there, I was supposed to be running and hiding, but…”  She quickly wiped at her eyes, angry at the tears betraying her.  She could feel the whiskey finally seeping into her consciousness.  “And he was there.  Krennic.  He led the...what did you call it? _Extraction_.  Was that in the file?”  

Cassian’s memory flashed back to the citadel, Krennic, the man responsible for her whole family’s ruin, pointing a blaster at Jyn, ready to kill her.  He remembered seeing Jyn flinch out of the corner of his eye as his own blaster bolt took Krennic down.  He suppressed a shiver, despite the humid air.

“No,” he said.  “I had no idea...Jyn, I’m…”  Words failed Cassian.  That didn’t matter though, he’d never liked words much anyways.  Words were twisted easily into lies.  Instead he reached out a hand and squeezed Jyn’s elbow.  She uncrossed her arms, found his hand with her own and held it.

“That’s not the only reason I want to go there,” Jyn added, meeting Cassian’s eyes with her own.  “I remember...well I think I remember, data files.  My father, he was wiping all the data as the troopers came.  That’s why he had us go on ahead of him.  I’m sure he got all of it, and anything he didn’t Krennic either found or burned, but…he had a lot of hiding spots.  And if anything at all was left behind…”

Cassian understood.  If anything was left behind, they couldn’t risk it being found by the Empire.  Even the smallest shred of data could make a huge difference if, Force forbid, they tried to _revive_ the planet killer.  He gave her hand a small squeeze.  

“If anything is there, we’ll find it, we’ll keep it out of their hands,” Cassian said.  

They  were both silent after that.  They lay there in heavy, sleepy stillness (made all the heavier by the whiskey and the tropical heat) until they both fell asleep, both positioned half on and half off the bed, not caring how uncomfortable it felt.  

 

At least, not until Cassian woke up in the middle of the night, a terrible ache in the middle of his back.  He leaned up painfully, gently releasing Jyn’s hand, which was still clasped to his own.  He looked down at her for a moment, watching the gentle rise and fall of her frame as she breathed deeply.  

Finally, he slid off the bed.  Gathering her up in his arms as best as he could, he shifted Jyn so she was lying on the bed more comfortably.  He knelt down, searching for the spare bedding beneath his bunk so he get a few more hours sleep in the U-wing, when he heard shifting and a voice heavy with sleep ask, “Cassian?”  His heart skipped at the sound, although he couldn’t admit to himself why.

“Yeah?” he asked, his own voice gruff.  He didn’t trust himself to get past one syllable.  Jyn squinted at him blearily.  Even through the haze of sleep she was able to put the pieces together.  

“Don’t be stupid.  We can share a bed,” she said, shifting over so she was on one half of the mattress.  Cassian remained mute but nodded.  Gingerly, he lied down on the other half behind her, careful to give her more than enough personal space.

In the end it didn’t matter all that much, as by morning she was tucked into his chest, his arms wrapped around her, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

 

* * *

 

They both woke to the noisy clanking sound of K-2 outside the door.   _Since when was_ Kay _noisy?_ Cassian thought, annoyed at the abrupt return to consciousness that required him to separate himself from Jyn; a thought which he immediately brushed off as a ridiculous barely-conscious thought that definitely didn’t make any sense and couldn’t possibly be his own.  

Meanwhile, Jyn groaned and tucked her face into the pillow, mumbling unintelligibly into it.  Cassian thought he made out the words “shoot” and “droid,” and decided he better intervene before Kay ended up in pieces.   

Cassian disentangled himself from the bed and moved to his door, opening it to find the gangly black droid waiting.

“Kay, what is it?”  Cassian asked, sounding more impatient than he meant to.  

Kay’s gears gave a short whir ( _was that a huff?_ ) and he stated, “Cassian.  Bodhi told me to find you.  He says we will be ready to leave for Lah’mu late this afternoon.  He wanted to know whether we will leave immediately or wait until tomorrow morning?  We need to get the flight plans submitted so we can leave without any trouble, like last time.  He also wanted me to ask Jyn if she can provide specific coordinates for our arrival on Lah’mu, but I could not find her as she was not in her room.  Do you know where she is?” 

Cassian hesitated briefly, which was a mistake.  It didn’t take long for Kay’s visual receivers to rove the room and spot the form still lying on Cassian’s bed.  

“Oh, is that Jyn?”  He raised his volume.  “JYN, BODHI WOULD LIKE TO KNOW…”  Cassian shushed the droid and pulled him quickly into the room, closing the door behind him.  

“Kay!  You’re going to wake up the whole hall,” Cassian hissed.  With her face still buried in the pillow, Jyn made a gesture towards Kay that would be considered rude on most planets within the Inner Rim.  Kay looked unperturbed, even for a droid.

“ _I’m_ just doing as Bodhi asked,” Kay replied.  

There was no use arguing with him.  “We’ll leave this afternoon, the trip takes long enough that the time we leave at won’t really matter.  And as for specific coordinates, we can worry about that once we’re closer.”

“Was that so difficult to answer?” Kay inquired dryly.  The silence that met his question was overwhelmingly hostile.  Kay didn’t notice.  “I will go tell Bodhi, then.”

As the droid was about to leave the room, a thought suddenly occurred to Cassian, and he stopped Kay just outside the doorway.

“Kay, can you do me a favor and please don’t mention to anyone that you found Jyn inside my room this morning?”  Cassian tried to keep his tone aloof, but the more words tumbled out of his mouth, the more it sounded like he was pleading.

Kay's eye bulbs dimmed ever so slightly, like he was narrowing them in suspicion.  “Why?” he asked, uncharacteristically succinct of him.  

“It’s just that, they might misunderstand, or they’ll assume it means...something that it doesn’t.  Just… please, Kay?”  Asking K2 to keep a secret was like asking a stormtrooper to shoot straight, but the droid still gave a nod before he trudged back down the corridor towards the main hangar.  

Cassian watched him go, muttered something like a prayer to himself, and retreated to his room, hoping that for once one of his missions could go smoothly.  

 

  
Of course, it didn’t...

* * *

 


	2. Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team arrives on Lah'mu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this got way more introspective than I meant. My apologies. I hope it's fluffy enough to make up for lack of forward action.

\- THEN - 

Cassian couldn’t remember when he fell for her.  He was in the middle before he knew he had even begun.  

He thinks it might have started when she stole his blaster, way back at the beginning, before they’d even gone to Jedha.  They were about to depart when he’d received his orders from Draven, the orders that Galen Erso was to be killed on sight if found.  Returning to the U-wing, he had been so wrapped up in thought that he hadn’t even noticed Jyn kneeling over his bag by the door.  Not until Kay in the cockpit had mentioned something about a blaster and demanding why _he_ didn’t get one had Cassian realized.  

Of course, he had demanded it back.  He’d read her file, he had faced the ire of Extraction Team Bravo whom were sent to retrieve her from Wobani - Melshi had been rather perturbed over one of his soldiers taking a shovel to the face from someone who was meant to be an asset to the Alliance.  The facts told him she could not be permitted a blaster, especially when he only had Kay to watch his back.

But when he looked into her eyes, heard her say, “trust goes both ways,” he had relented against his better judgement, against all reason and strategy (as Kay had been quick to point out).  He hadn’t needed her _trust_ for the mission’s sake, he had Draven’s threats of a speedy return to Wobani he could hold over her head.  But he had ignored logic and put her need, the need that burned so clearly behind her eyes, before the mission.

It had only grown from there.  He had held down a smile when she called Kay “ _target practice”_ \- secretly, it was his new favorite name for the droid - and he had completely failed to hide his awe when he saw her skills in combat on Jedha, especially with the truncheons.  

When they had been captured by Saw’s soldiers, he had been unable to keep his mind from wandering to her, throughout the long journey to the partisans’ hideout, the whole time they were imprisoned there, when they were trying to escape the devastation of the planet killer’s first test, it had been a constant echo in the back of his mind: _Where is Jyn? Where is Jyn?_

After he had found Bodhi, the whole reason they were there to see Saw, she had lost all her usefulness to the mission, to the Alliance, and she was a liability from that point forward, but he couldn’t leave her behind, _he couldn’t_.  

He might not have been able to admit it at that point, he couldn’t have admitted it before Scarif, but from then on he had been bound to her, and her fate had become tied to his own.

*** * ***

Jyn hated to admit she loved someone, much less that she trusted them.  Loving people had never gone well for her.  It was usually a sure sign that they were going to be ripped away from her long before she was ready to let go.  It had happened with her mother, her father, Saw, every person she’d thought to be a friend.  Loving or trusting people inevitably led to absence or betrayal.  

So when she began to trust Cassian, she had fought it.  She didn’t _want_ to trust anyone, not again.  She could only take so much heartbreak, and the easy solution to avoiding it was to not allow anyone close enough to be capable of it.  

She had tried hard to keep him at arm’s length, to not let him too close, but it had failed.  Because every time she found herself vulnerable and exposed, every moment where everyone else she’d known would have walked away, would have left her to fend for herself, Cassian had been there.  

He had saved her from the partisan in Jedha City, who’d almost thrown the thermal grenade toward her, despite the fact that it put his mission in jeopardy.  He had dragged her from Saw’s chambers when the world was crumbling around her, and everyone else had already fled.  He had done the same on Eadu, when she held her papa in her arms for the last time, and the world was crumbling within herself.  

He had been there for her again and again and again, without hesitation, without fail.  Try as she might, Cassian found a way to penetrate her armor and attach himself to her, until despite her best efforts she couldn’t help but trust him.  She couldn’t help but love him.

* * *

 - NOW -

As their ship approached, Baze and Bodhi looked out the side port to get a first look at the small planet.  Jyn sat next to Chirrut, trying to maintain a stony exterior, but she was betrayed by fingers which tapped a nervous rhythm against her knee.  Mercifully, Chirrut pretended to not notice.

“What do you see, my friends?” Chirrut called to his Jedhan comrades.  

“Lots of green,” Bodhi replied quickly, looking at the lush plains covering the majority of the planet.

Baze nodded and grunted, “rings,” referring to the halo-like belt that orbited around the middle of Lah’mu.  

Chirrut nodded, satisfied with the simple descriptions.  He leaned towards Jyn and said, quiet enough so that no one else heard, “Is it as you remember?”  

Jyn was startled.  She had chosen not to tell the rest of the crew why this specific planet had been selected.  There had been a few curious questions from the team, but they had all been brushed off by Jyn, and Cassian had kept silent on the matter.  As far as any of them knew, the Alliance had determined there was possibly some sort of intelligence there that Rogue One had been tasked with recovering if it was present.  Of course, Chirrut had still figured out the truth.

Jyn almost asked how he knew, but instead just shook her head - this was Chirrut after all.  “I don’t remember all that much about it.  It was a long time ago.”

He gave another silent nod and let the rest of their journey to the surface pass in peace.

Arriving, they landed near a cluster of farms and settlements, the closest thing to a spaceport the planet had.  Jyn had told Cassian she couldn’t remember the exact coordinates of the homestead and that they would need to figure it out once they were on-planet.  While this was mostly true, she was also grateful to avoid their immediate arrival because, deep down, she knew that she wasn’t ready yet.  Jyn wasn’t ready to see the burnt and abandoned skeleton of her childhood home and to remember memories and feelings long forgotten or shuttered away in her mind, hidden where they couldn’t hurt her.  

After leaving the ship to take a quick survey of the homesteads and fields that surrounded them, Cassian returned to the freighter.  Everyone loosely clustered around him in the ship’s main hold and he laid out their plan for the rest of the mission.

“Jyn, Kay, and I are going to take the landspeeder and find our mark.  Based off the data we have, it shouldn’t take us more than a few days to locate it and determine whether there is any data to be retrieved.

Baze, Chirrut, Bodhi, I want you three to stay here with the freighter to watch our backs.  Bodhi, listen in to all nearby comm channels and keep us apprised of anything unusual you might hear, and try to keep a line of communication open with Rebel Base.  Let us know about any pertinent information, but try to keep our channel as quiet as you can; if someone else does show up, we don’t want to give them any sort of edge.

“Baze and Chirrut, you two, do... your thing.  Keep an eye on the settlements, the skies, the people, the Force.  If anything is off, you know what to do.”

Cassian looked around, letting his eyes pause on each face in turn, coming to Jyn last.  He kept his eyes locked with hers for a long moment before he continued.  “This is a simple reconnaissance mission.  We don’t anticipate any issues or unwelcome company.  However, as we all know well by now, things rarely go as we plan,” (Baze gave a dry “ _ha!_ ”), “and we’re going to be as ready as we can for every possibility.”  

Cassian paused, giving the team a chance to voice questions or concerns, but they remained silent.  He nodded.  “May the force be with us.”

As she, Kay, and Cassian began to head out, Jyn noticed Bodhi’s face looked slightly crestfallen.  For all the places he’d been as a cargo pilot, he rarely got to see any of them and Jyn knew he wanted to explore more, to bury his memories of destruction and horror with new ones, hopefully of beauty and wonder.  She paused by Bodhi as Cassian and Kay continued out of the hold, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Next time,” she said gently with a smile, “we’ll definitely need you out there.  Cassian is just agitated about this mission and, well, neither of us really trusts Kay to do as he’s told.”  She recalled Jedha, when Kay had proven how disobedient he could be, half-heartedly following Cassian’s instructions with open doubt and a lot of petulance.  It was an unusual attitude for a droid (even a reprogrammed one) .  

Bodhi gave her a small grin back.  “It’s alright, Jyn.”  He glanced cautiously around to Baze and Chirrut, whom were standing across the hold, presumably out of earshot, and continued speaking in a conspiratorial whisper.  “Just not relishing the thought of being the third wheel for a few days.  You know how they can get.”  

Jyn gave a small chuckle as she nodded her head.  “I understand.  We’ll be back as soon as we can.”  

As she walked out, wrapping her coarse scarf around her neck and over her hair, Chirrut’s voice drifted over, “You know, I _heard_ that.”  The last thing Jyn registered before stepping outside was Baze’s boisterous laughter as Bodhi sputtered out some sounds that were probably meant to be an apology.  

Jyn was going to miss them, even if it was just a few days.

*** * ***

Outside the freighter, Cassian and Kay had successfully unloaded the landspeeder and were checking the various meters and displays, making sure it was fully operational.  When Jyn had strolled up alongside the vehicle, she saw someone approaching from a nearby house and nudged Cassian’s arm with her elbow to get his attention.

Cassian followed where Jyn’s eyes pointed and muttered something not totally intelligible under his breath, (something about the luck of the recent paint job they’d managed to give Kay, hiding his Imperial markings) and without hesitation took Jyn’s hand.  

Jyn let her own face form into a mask, an old one of feigned innocence and ignorance.  Just a weary traveler with no personal ties to any wars or rebellions or empires.  She doesn’t look at Cassian, but knows he must be doing the same.  Kay just stood expectantly, letting his visual receptors drift from Cassian to Jyn to the approaching figure and back again.   _Analyzing the situation_ , Jyn thought.  She dimly wonders what the odds are that this will be nothing.

“Hello!” the figure called in Basic, once it was close enough.  Cassian gave a small smile and nodded in the newcomer’s direction.  It was another human.

“Saw you folks land, just wanted to come over and meet ya!”  He was somewhat grey and middle-aged, but his eyes seemed to sparkle with genuine friendliness.  Jyn thought with a pang of sadness that he was about the same age as her father had been.  She wondered if they might have met before, but the thought was cut off by Cassian’s voice.  Cassian maintained his smile as he spoke.

“That’s very kind of you.  My name is Joreth and this is my wife, Liana.”  He cast an affectionate look in Jyn’s direction, to which she gave a convincingly coy smile.  The cover of _blushing bride_ was an easy one, made all the easier by her young age and younger appearance.  People often mistook her for a teenager.  

“And this is our droid, C-5KL.  We call him Kay for short, of course.”  Cassian had learned the hard way that false names did not work for K-2SO, who had always been a terrible liar and was usually unresponsive to any name besides his own.  

Upon being introduced Kay gave an overly annunciated, “ _Greet_ -ings,” and tried to wave stiffly like C-3PO.  Jyn held in a groan.  Kay was the furthest thing from a protocol droid imaginable, but no other cover made sense.  

They chatted with the farmer for a few minutes; his name was Danyar and he’d been on Lah’mu since the Clone Wars’ end ( _so he might have met my father_ Jyn thought).  He’d lost his wife to illness a few seasons back, but found companionship in the company of his neighbors and the communications from his two children, who’d left the planet years back, once they’d come of age.  “Can’t say I blame them,” he sighed wistfully, and Jyn felt another pang, this time of pity, but Danyar seemed content with his uncomplicated existence.  From what Danyar said, they were the first newcomers in over a year, not counting the occasional visits of traders and merchants that occurred each month.  

_That’s good_ , Jyn thought, _the Empire hasn’t been here yet_.  

Cassian gave a convincing story of their desire to settle on the planet away from the discord ravaging the rest of the galaxy, hoping to lead a simple life and start a family (at which Jyn gave a convincing blush).  They were there to scout out a spot to make their own.  Danyar nodded, understanding.  Their story was much the same as the other settlers who’d spread out across the plains of Lah’mu.

As they talked, Jyn decided that Danyar didn’t pose any threat, but the facade they created was a necessary one, as much for Danyar’s protection as it was for their own.  Jyn still thought it was a shame they had to lie.  But the lie was a pleasant one, so she didn’t feel bad for too long.  

Eventually Danyar said his goodbyes and they parted amiably.  Jyn wondered at his life as they watched him meander home.  It seemed so… peaceful.  If only it could have stayed that way for her own parents and herself.

Once the farmer was out of sight Cassian gently released Jyn’s hand, curling and extending his fingers slowly.  The warmth remained in Jyn’s own fingers for a good while afterwards.  They made brief eye contact, but broke it quickly.  

“Okay,” Cassian said, “let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't responded to any comments on the previous chapter. I wanted to, but kept telling myself that I needed to focus on writing the next chapter, so I'll go respond to comments now. I really appreciate all the kudos and feedback! It means the world to me.
> 
> 1-2 chapters max after this! I don't want to force anyone to invest more than necessary. Also, Happy Rebelcaptain Appreciation Week! Monday is "family," so I guess this chapter sort of counts? 
> 
> Also, cursing at myself because this was meant to be a one-shot...whoops.
> 
> P.S. - If you want to find me on tumblr, my Rogue One/Star Wars blog is whatwill-you-become.tumblr.com - Feel free to check it out and say hi!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> This was originally meant to me a one-shot, but things got sort of wordy, as they do, so it's going to be two to three parts now, depending on how the next bit goes.
> 
> (Again, first published fic, so pretty nerve-wracking to actually put it up.) 
> 
> My Star Wars/Rogue One tumbr is whatwill-you-become, come say hi if you want!


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